In classic Gillis "working to a deadline" style - the Canucks have avoided arbitration and come to an agreement with Danish winger Jannik Hansen (according to Nick Kypreos) on a three year contract. According to Chris Johnston - Hansen's three year deal is worth 4.05 million dollars with an annual cap-hit of 1.35 million. The contract will pay Hansen 1.6 million in the first year, 1.35 in 2012/13 and 1.1 million in 2013/2014. Here's the official press release from Canucks.com.

Jannik Hansen has evolved into a fan favorite as a result of his fantastic defensive play, and his ability to be something of a tasmanian devil on the forecheck. Over the course of this season, he developed into a pretty good playmaker as well. Remy Greer covered Hansen's second line potential in a must-read post earlier this week that seems especially relevant now.

Last season Hansen dressed in every regular season game accumulating nine goals and twenty assists, he added nine points in twenty-five playoff games. Along the way he lined up with Malhotra and Torres (and then Lapierre and Torres in the postseason) and was a major contributor to one of the leagues most effective checking lines. Hansen's underlying numbers are fantastic (third best adjusted-fenwick per game on the Canucks behind Malhotra and Kesler), and his hands and hitting ability have improved dramatically. Needless to say - I'm ecstatic that the Canucks have locked up a player of Hansen's caliber for the next three seasons, and I am convinced that he has "breakout potential."

Thomas Drance lives in Toronto, eats spicy food and writes about hockey. He is the editor in chief of the Nation Network (a.k.a Overlord), and an opinionated blowhard to boot. You can follow him on twitter @thomasdrance.

I'd never really considered them before, but Hansen's underlying numbers are amazing considering his circumstances. He took 165 more d-zone draws last year, but still ended up marginally above water. That's fairly incredible.

the thing with more PP time would mean he would be in the 2nd PP unit which is absolute garbage to begin with, escentially the 3rd line with burrows with barely any minutes and i really can't imagine hansen in the 1st unit at all.

unless kesler was split from the sedins which would make the 2nd PP unit be a lot better but would also make the 1st PP unit a lot worse.

it is pretty bad considering what the 2nd unit did accomplish last season. hansen would be escentially be substituting for malholtra thus cutting the puck movement down from an already bad puck moving 2nd unit. PP's are about quick passes, regardless even he was on the 2nd unit based on what the 2nd unit accomplished last season, it won't really pump up his numbers.

Well - if passing ability makes a power-play unit effective, as you say, then Jannik Hansen (3rd highest primary assist rate per/60 on the team behind the twins) might indeed be the perfect antidote for what ails the second unit.